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Traycer has two public modes: Regular Mode and Epic Mode. A Task itself is not in a mode. Each chat or terminal agent has its own mode. New chats default to Epic Mode unless your last-used settings override that default.
ModeWhat it feels likeBest forArtifact behavior
Regular ModeDirect work with a coding agent.Small changes, questions, debugging, focused edits, and quick investigations.Artifacts can appear, but they are not the center of the workflow.
Epic ModeTraycer’s structured planning layer around the coding agent.Larger work that needs preserved intent, planning, tickets, reviews, or multiple agents.Artifacts are first-class and usually drive the workflow.

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Regular Mode

Regular Mode is the shortest path from prompt to coding-agent work. Use it when the request is already clear enough and you do not need a planning layer first. Typical Regular Mode flow:
  1. Open a Task.
  2. Start or continue a chat.
  3. Choose Regular Mode.
  4. Ask the coding agent to investigate, explain, edit, or run a focused step.
  5. Inspect files and git diff inside the same Task.
Regular Mode still lives inside Traycer, so the work stays connected to the Task, workspace folder, chat history, files, and artifacts.

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Epic Mode

Epic Mode is for deliberate work. It helps preserve intent and break work into durable artifacts such as specs, tickets, stories, and reviews. Typical Epic Mode flow:
  1. Open a Task.
  2. Switch the chat to Epic Mode.
  3. Describe the outcome and constraints.
  4. Let the conversation produce or refine artifacts.
  5. Use those artifacts to guide implementation, review, and follow-up work.
Epic Mode is better when the work has ambiguity, multiple steps, important decisions, or enough risk that a one-shot prompt would lose context.

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Switching Modes

Chats can switch between Regular Mode and Epic Mode as the conversation continues. The mode control is a toggle: it shows the current mode and switches to the other mode when clicked. That matters because work can change shape:
  • a simple Regular Mode chat can become Epic Mode when the work needs planning
  • an Epic Mode thread can return to Regular Mode when the next step is direct execution or inspection
Mode changes apply to the next agent turn. If a turn is already running or queued, the new mode does not rewrite the turn that already started. Terminal agents are fixed: choose Regular Mode or Epic Mode when the terminal agent starts. That mode stays with the terminal-agent session, so start a new terminal agent when the mode needs to change. Terminal Agents are still agent sessions with Traycer context. Plain Terminals are shells. The distinction is covered in Terminal Agents VS Terminals.

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Chat vs Terminal

Chat vs terminal is not a mode choice.
SurfaceMode behavior
ChatMode can change as the conversation continues.
Terminal agentMode is selected at launch and remains fixed for that session.
TerminalNo agent mode; it is a plain shell.
Terminal and terminal-agent host behavior is covered in Hosts and Troubleshooting.